Stocking having a thickened wale structure and method of knitting the same



I Dec. 3@, 1924. 1,521,256

R. W. SCOTT STOCKING HAVING A THICKENED WALE STRUCTURE AND METHOD OF KNITTING THE SAME Filed July '7, 1921 1* a I w 05 Patented Dec. 30, 1924.

UNITED STATES ROBERT 'w. scorr, or BABYLON, New YORK.

STOCKING HAVING ATHIGKENED WLLE STRUCTURE AND METHOD OF ITTING THE SAME.

vApplication filed July 7, 1921. Seria1-No. 483,024.

To allwhom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, ROBERT W. Soon, a citizen of the United States of America, and resident of Babylon, in the county of Suffolk and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Stockings Having Thickened Wale Structures and Methods of Knitting the Same, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to stockings having thickened wales as 'an improvement upon the method and article disclosed in my Letters Patent No. 1,256,834 dated February 19, 1918.

In the accompanying drawings Fig. 1 is a rear or inside elevation, enlarged, of one form of the new structure;

Fig. 2 is a diagram plan of a. segment of needles upon which the fabric shown in Fig. 1 can be made, illustrating the position of the thickening-wale yarn in respect to certain needles corresponding to wales of Fig. 1;

Figs. 3 and a are diagram perspectives of the needles of a circular knitting machine illustrating phases of the inclusion of the thickening-wale yarn according to Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a diagram similar to Fig. 2, illustrating another phase of the inclusion of the thickening-wale yarn;

Fig. 6 is an elevation showing certain types of knitting machine latch-needles adapted for the practice upon a machine of the method hereinafter outlined;

Fig. 7 is a diagram plan of a machine employing such needles;

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 1 illustrating a modification; and

Fig. 9 is a detail similar to Fig. 7, showing an arrangement of needles corresponding-to the fabric illustrated in Fig. 8.

Referring now to Fig. 1, the structure therein illustrated is a thickened seam S distributed along certain wales B, A and B of the plain web W of the stocking.

The distribution of the thickening or additions to the fabric in the wales B, A and B is not constant in the direction of the length of the thickened seam S constituted thereby, but is intermittently wide and narrows-P As explained in my said Patent No. 1,256,834, a stocking with an intermittent thickened-wale of this nature has heretofore been made by interlacing or engaging a yarn with the fabric in recurrent groups of courses, the thickening-yarn being floated or extending straight and unengaged 'from group to group; for instance, as illustrated at 3 in Figs. 2 and 4 of my said patent. If the web W is slackly knit, so as to be expansible in a high degree, the straight runs or floats are strained to their breaking point before the extensible limit of the fabric is reached, and unless care has been taken to make the patented structure of a strong and relatively loose thickening-wale yarn, breakage is liable to ensue, either of the structural web W or of the additional thickening-wale yarn t.

As illustrated in Fig. 1, and in Figs. 2, 3,

4 and 5, I avoid this by arranging to interloop the thickening-wale yarn t with each course of the structural web W in such a manner as to enable the web W to stretch in any direction to its natural limit, without extendin any run of the yarn t beyond its power to follow.

Referring to Fig. 1, in the courses marked 1 and 2, the yarn t is interlooped with the sinker-wales w, 'w passing from the wale w in course 1 to the wale 'w in course 2, the yarn t thus passing behind a spot in the fabric definedby the needle wales B, A, B in the said courses 1 and 2. So far the structure is the same as that shown in Fig. 2 of my said patent, and this structure is repeated after a suitable interval in the direction of the wales, for instance, after skipping two courses 3 and 4, as shown in Fig. 1, being applied to the courses 5, 6, and intended to be repeated in courses 10, 11; 14, 15, etc. (not shown). In the courses 3, 4; 7, 8, etc., instead of extending from the sinker-wale w to the sinker-wale w in a loop or float, the yarn t is interlooped, interwoven or engaged with a narrow part of the fabric; as shown, at m and 3 with the fabric at either side of the wale A. A preferred way of doing this is to provide for wrapping the yarn t about the needles or other instruments on which the wales B, A and B are knit in position to be cast ofi unknit after the laying upon them of the structural or body-yarn w. At the wider places, the yarn t may be laid about the three needles n n n for instance, at a suitable point in the series of needles n upon which the heel, toe, and back of the leg of the stocking are knit, and for the narrower places in the thickening structure, see Fi 5, the yarn 1 may be laid about a sing e needle, for instance, the needle n. As described in'my said patent and claimed in my application Serial No. 114,096, filed August 10,1916, the steps in the operation I consisting in wrapping the yarn t about the desired needle or needles may be performed by isolating the desired needle or needles in respect to their passage in a circular path at and away from the place of a temporarily fixed yarn-guide t for the additional yarn t. The mode of forming the fabric structure according to my present invention is shown in the diagram Figures 3 and 4 respectively, the operations on the side of the circle of needles toward theobserver in said Figures 3 and 4 corresponding to Figs. 2 and 5 respectively, and resulting in the wider structure shown in courses 1 and 2 onone hand, and the narrower structure shown in courses 3 and 4, on the other hand. The loops of yarn t in the narrower places of its engagement, as in courses 3, 4, 7 and 8 of Fig. 1 or courses 2 and 3 of Fig. 8, are obviously as capable of extension in any direction as are the loops of the base web W.

These operations may be performed with the aid of mechanical devices which formno part of the present invention, but which may consist of a properly arranged series of needles, see Figs. 6 and 7, of which the long butt needles n may be the usual instep set, and the shorter butt needles a may be the usual heel and toe set, the thickeningwale or thickened seam structure such as S being made upon needles 17. n, n. having butts still shorter than the needles n, and therefore capable of being left isolated in an elevated position when a depressing cam 101 is moved in the direction of the arrow 2 -to the position shown at 2 and 3. In the position 2, all of the needles n, n, 91. stand above their fellows; in the position 3 only the needle n stands above its fellows. Re-

ferring to Fig. 1, the cam '101 may be posi-' tionedby a lever 420 in the position 2 during the courses 1 and 2, and in the position 3 during the courses 3 and 4, etc., thus causing motions-of the needles indicated in diagram, in Figs. 3 and 4 respectively.

The narrow loops may be arranged in varied wales of needle loops of the base web W in relation to the wales having the wide distributed to make the desired type of fabric, of which the drawings show instances only. The production of V the thickened wale may be begun or ended at the desired places in the length of the stocking by entering the cam 101 to the positions 2 or 3, or removing it to the position 1; or the guide t for the yarn t may be moved as indicated by the double-headed arrow in Fig. 4; or movement of the cam 101' and guide t may be coordinated, in either case the intervening wales of the base web, if-

any, are free to be raised or puckered by tension on the'yarn t, which lies wholly on the back or inside of the web W.

I claim:

1. A stocking having a thickening-wale of additional yarn extending longitudinally of the web and on its back face and having.

wider spots separated by narrower spots recurring in its length. 1

2. A stocking having a thickenin -wale extending longitudinally of the we andhaving wider spots separated by narrower spots recurring in its length, and compris ing an additional yarn lying on one face of the web only and continuous from spot to spot and in 'loopingpngagement with the web in both the wide and the narrow spots.

3. A stockin having an additional-yarn thickening wa e structure of intermittent character in which the narrow parts of the r intermittent thickening are formed of runs of the additional yarn lying on one face of the fabric in loops capable of extension to as great a degree as the adjacent base web.

4. A stocking having therein a thickenedwale structure comprising an additional yarn lying on one face of the stocking web interlaced with a continuous part of the said web in each'course, the points of en-- gagement being separated by different numbers of wales in different courses.

5. A seamless tubular knit stockingnhaving at the back of the leg a thickened seam formed by means of an additional arn engaging wales on the inner face on y of the stocking, the points .of engagement being separated by different numbers of wales in different courses. J

6. A stocking having therein a thicken ing-wale structure comprising a continuous additional yarn interwoven at the ends of lateral runs only with the base .web, said yarn being interwoven with a greater width of the fabric in some places than in others.

7. A stocking having therein a thickening-wale structure comprising a continuous additional yarn lying wholly on one face of and interwoven with the base web, said yarn being interwoven with a greater width of the fabric in some places than in others.

8. A stocking having aseam characterized by an additional'yarn lying on one face of the fabric only and interlooped with every course of the structural web throughout the length of the seam, the points of interloopment being varied in lateral spacing in recurrent groups of courses, whereby to vary the thickness intermittently.

9. A stocking having therein a thickenedwale structure comprising an additional yarn interlaced-with the fabric onthe inside face thereof in intermittently wide and narrow spots, the narrow spots comprising yarn in looped engagement with-the structural web, whereby to permit longitudinal stretching without breakage.

10. The art of making knit stockings having therein thickened-Wale structures comprising successlvely engaging an additional yarn with a base web in recurrent courses at points laterally separated by intervening wales, and engaging the additional yarn with the web in intervening coursesin looped relation to the web at points closer together laterally.

11. The art of making knit stockings having therein thickened-Wale structures comprising successively engaging an additional yarn with a base web in recurrent courses at points laterally separated by intervening Wales, and engaging the additional yarn with the web in intervening ,courses in looped relation to a single wale of the Web.

12. The art of making knit stockings comprising recurrently engaging with a knit base web the ends of runs of, an additional yarn at points a number of wales apart, and engaging the additional yarn during the knitting of intervening courses of the base web with said courses in interlooped rela tion to a lesser number of wales of said courses.

13. The art of knitting seamless tubular stockings with structures simulating seams by circular knitting on a series of needles, comprising knitting the base web in the usual manner, and coordinately wrapping an additional yarn about certain of the needles and thereafter supplying them with the knitting yarn for the base web and casting off the wrapping, the step being carried out in recurrent courses in respect to different numbers of needles.

Signed by meat New York this 6th day of July 1921.

ROBERT W. SCOTT. 

